Arsenal’s international stars will return to north London in the coming days with Mikel Arteta looking to continue his team’s impressive star to the season when they head to Bournemouth
William Saliba produced an error-strewn performance for France
Arsenal will soon have their players back from international duty with focus switching to Premier League matters.
The Gunners have sat a point off top spot over the past 10 days with Liverpool leading the pack, but the north Londoners will hope to overhaul them when they play first this weekend. Mikel Arteta’s side head to Bournemouth, where they’ve been rampant in recent seasons.
Martin Odegaard remains absent whilst there are still concerns over Bukayo Saka’s fitness after he picked up a knock whilst away with England. Arsenal will have to manage their resources as they gear up for a three-game week due to the Champions League.
Here’s the latest from the Emirates.
Saliba’s France shocker
William Saliba has faced major criticism in France after enduring a horror show at the heart of defence. The Arsenal centre-half lined up in defence alongside Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate for Les Blues as they narrowly saw off Belgium.
Saliba’s errors cost his team a goal and a penalty however. The 23-year-old conceded a spot kick for a foul on Lois Openda – only for Youri Tielemans to miss. Openda was then able to get in behind Saliba once again as he scored for Belgium to draw them level on the night.
Another blunder then resulted in Real Madrid’s Aurelien Tchouameni picking up a second yellow card, leading to his dismissal. So Foot gave Saliba a 2/10 rating, the lowest mark of any player on the pitch, as they wrote: “Penalty, (yellow) card, loss of ball… Fortunately, Openda ended up not taking advantage of his elastic marking before half-time because he would have felt obliged to score this goal himself.”
He received the same rating from Didocu Sport who were scathing with their criticism as they labelled it his worst outing for his country.
Sevilla eye Lokonga deal
Sevilla are hopeful of signing Albert Sambi Lokonga on a permanent basis – but want to drive down the fee that has already been agreed. Estadio Deportivo report that the Spanish club would have to pay €12 million if they wanted to land the Belgian midfielder.
Albert Sambi Lokonga is currently playing his football in Spain
The serial Europa League winners though believe that the figure can be negotiated and intend to discuss it with the north Londoners in the future. Lokonga has had a succession of loan spells away from the Emirates and is no longer part of the first-team picture.
Arsenal signed the midfielder when he was highly rated in Belgium, but are likely to consider ways to get him off their books permanently. Sevilla are struggling financially and are unlikely to pay the figure originally stated.
Eidevall leaves Arsenal job
Arsenal Women’s boss Jonas Eidevall has resigned and left his post with immediate affect -leaving assistant coach Renée Slegers to step in on an interim basis. Eidevall has been with Arsenal since joining in 2021, but pressure had been mounting following a string of poor results to start the season.
Last Wednesday Arsenal suffered a heavy defeat to Bayern Munich in the Women’s Champions League and were then beaten in the WSL at home to rivals Chelsea just days later – resulting in them being booed off.
Jonas Eidevall has left his role at Arsenal
Director of Women’s Football Clare Wheatley said: “We’d like to say a huge thank you to Jonas for his hard work and dedication to Arsenal Football Club over the past three years. Jonas has brought us back-to-back trophies in the last two seasons, together with many memorable moments on the pitch.”
Sporting Director Edu added: “We thank Jonas for his commitment to the club and achievements here since joining us in 2021. We have great respect for the dedication and commitment he showed to our women’s first team and recognise the role he has played in the growth and development of Arsenal Women. We all wish him the very best for the future.”